Gang life haunts killer at sentencing

Bill Gang

Thursday, Oct. 28, 1999 | 10:25 a.m.

For Randy Smith, the street gang life he had embraced for more than a dozen years already had cost him six years behind bars. Now it will cost him at least another 10 -- and perhaps his entire life.

Smith, 26, couldn't set aside his ties to his gang nor his habits, such as carrying a gun.

When he got into a confrontation outside his ex-girlfriend's house with a man who had shot him during an earlier incident, Smith pulled his pistol and fired numerous shots, killing 19-year-old Johnathan Cotton.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle sentenced Smith to life in prison with no parole possible until he has served 10 years -- the harshest sentence for second-degree murder.

Smith claimed that Cotton, who had a large amount of the drug PCP in his system, had pulled a pistol first, but there was never a second weapon found.

Although charged with first-degree murder, Smith eventually plea-bargained his case to second-degree murder and a guaranteed chance at probation after 10 years rather than face a jury with the self defense story.

His trial testimony would have been tainted by his gang-related criminal past that began when he was 13-years-old and the fact that he was on parole for an armed robbery.

Had Smith been convicted of first-degree murder at a trial, the lightest sentence he would have faced would have been life in prison with no parole possible for 40 years.

The issue at Smith's sentencing Wednesday was whether the punishment should be 10 years to life in prison or 10 to 25 years.

Smith asked for leniency, saying the deadly confrontation on March 26, 1998, was the result of Cotton using PCP in the presence of the child Smith had with his ex-girlfriend, Markeshna Brown.

He then turned to Cotton's family and apologized for his deadly behavior.

"Ain't no polite way to say I'm sorry for what I did to your family," Smith said simply.

Deputy Special Public Defender Dayvid Figler told the judge that the world of gangs and drugs that Smith was "born and trapped into ... is very different from what you or I can understand.

"It's hard to understand the gangs are their mother and father," Figler said.

The judge wasn't moved and sentenced Smith to the maximum sentence -- a term he won't begin to serve until he completes the remainder of his sentence for the armed robbery.

Although Deputy District Attorney Steve Waters admitted the slaying of Cotton was not directly gang-related, he said Smith is an admitted gang member and "of that mentality."

Waters said Smith has been arrested 19 times in his life, beginning when he was just 13-years-old and spent time in juvenile institutions before becoming an adult and moving on to prison.